Saturday, November 10, 2007
"So I do want you to know," said Progressive Party activist Anthony Pollina to 80 Progs attending the annual state convention at Vermont Law School in South Royalton on Saturday, "that I do very much expect and I do very much intend to be a candidate for governor next year.”
The joint went nuts! People jumped out of their seats to cheer.
"But!" shouted Anthony. "But...I started to say 'But," and you got all noisy."
They slowly simmered down, and returned to their seats and Tony the Prog got right to the point:
"There’s a lot of work that we need to do if we’re going to make that happen.
One is, as Progressives, we have to do the work to build an active, inspired political base that will actually bring us a successful campaign...
"We have to reach out and talk to friends who probably don’t know they are Progressives just yet.
"And it also means that we have to work very seriously with our friends in the Democratic Party to especially make sure that they understand the need to build a successful campaign. To understand that this particular race is going to take one candidate people can get behind that can make sure that we replace Jim Douglas with a governor that brings us in a different direction...
"And I think we really need to be clear with these folks that we know that we need each other’s support. That we know that. And that we, in fact, are going to do our best, as we have been doing over the last couple months, to seek and accept the support of our Democratic friends because this election is too important to do otherwise. And that we will use that support from Democrats as well as others to build a campaign that’s strong enough to win but also to build a coalition that’s strong enough to last and to take Vermont in a different direction."
State Rep. Chris Pearson of Burlap, former Prog Party director, experienced on the campaign frontlines in races for Bernie Sanders in 1998 and Anthony in 2000 and 2002, was even more direct:
"Money is king in this game," Chris told them. "You can wish it’s not true, but it is. Inthe major leagues, it’s perhaps the biggest indicator of running aserious race."
Recalling the 2000 gubernatorial race, said Pearson, "We were delighted to have $300,000 to spend. This one is going to require $1 million."
"If we’re going to do this," Pearson [at left] told the party faithful, "we have to demonstrate, and demonstratequickly, that we’re not goofing around. To me, that means raising$100,000 by January 15."
Whatdafuck?
"If we do that," he said, "the media will notice."
And not just the "media" predicted Pearson.
"Any Democrat in the race will take notice," said the former UVM student and Vermont Pub & Brewery employee. "We have an emergency. If we’re going to turn the tide on any of theissues we care about, we really have no choice. Our candidate leads thepack with name recognition, credibility and campaign know-how," said Pearson. "We have to move quickly, though, to demonstrate fundraising power."
Yes, indeed, time to put their money where their mouth is, eh?
Plus, said Rep. Pearson to the Progressive Party faithful, "If we’re serious about winning, we have to consider options like addingan additional party label. Some of you may find that despicable," he said, "and I’m sorry. We’re not going to have thatdebate. We don’t have the time."
Kinda get the feeling, they have until January 15, don't you?
That's the date when the Pollina players need to have 100 grand in the campaign kitty, or else - fuggedaboutit!
Tags: Senator , Bernie Sanders , Web Only
Friday, November 9, 2007
Long time no see for these two guys!
Both are mentioned in the Vermont media as potential gubernatorial challengers to King James, a.k.a. GOP Gov. Jim Douglas.
Anthony Pollina [left] and distinguished ambassador and foreign-policy author Peter Galbraith got together in Burlington late Wednesday afternoon for some java at Uncommon Grounds on the Marketplace and some catching up. It's been 30 years since these two baby-boomers sat down together for a chat!
That was back in the late 1970s. Pollina had just graduated Johnson State College and went to work for the Vermont Alliance. Galbraith was the executive director of the Vermont Democratic Party. They were working out of the same building in beautiful downtown Montpeculiar.
Galbraith, now living in Windsor County, served as President Bill Cinton's first ambassador to Croatia. He was en route to give a talk in Middlebury about his latest book The End of Iraq. The son of diplomat John Kenneth Galbraith has seen a lot of the world and its turmoil since those Montpelier days of the 1970s.
The former ambassador was not particularly chatty about his gubernatorial prospects. His name has been floated last month by Democratic Senate Prez Peter Shumlin whose party is not exactly inundated with eager candidates fired up to take down Vermont's Republican anti-wind power, pro-nuclear power chief executive.
Tony the Prog told yours truly they had a good half-hour chat.
So what's the current status of Anthony's potential gubernatorial bid in 2008?
"As of now," said Pollina, "it looks more likely everyday."
Thursday, November 8, 2007
The Conservation Law Foundation has a well-earned reputation for being the toughest, most litigious, nose-to-the-grindstone environmental non-profit in play in Vermont and across New England. "Being liked" has never been CLF's goal. Rather, winning environmental battles in the courtroom is.
And they're good at it.
CLF's also undergoing a little style-change. Warmer. Fuzzier. Friendlier. And reaching out in a planned and deliberate way to the financially well-endowed among us for support.
Pony-tailed Attorney Chris Killian has been CLF's top dog at its Montpelier, Vermont outpost since 1999. Wednesday evening, CLF held a get-together at Burlington's Waterfront Theater on Lake Street. Yours truly had a chat with him before the show got rolling.
FREYNE: What's this all about?
The top political strategist advising Vermont Democrats at the Statehouse - Bill Lofy of Jericho - has been signed up as a top strategist for the "Stop Sununu Campaign" in New Hampshire. Check it out here.
Let's face folks. It's the end of the Age of Bush and incumbent GOP Sen. John Sununu, a Bush lap dog, has a tough reelection race ahead against former Democrat Gov. Jeanne Shaheen.
Lofy, 35, is a former staffer for the late, great U.S. Sen. Paul Wellstone of Minnesota. He's also written a brilliant biography of Wellstone, the professor-turned-politician who was killed in a Minnesota small plane crash in 2002.
Lofy and wife Jamie moved to Vermont in 2005. They have a four-month old - Ben.
Mr. Lofy's the reason House Speaker Gaye Symington and Senate Prez Peter Shumlin formed a political action committee - so they could raise the bucks to hire him as their political "consultant."
Nice.
But let's face it, folks. The 2008 race in Vermont for state offices like governor isn't looking real exciting at the moment is it?
The latest buzz has Windor County State Senator, and former Florida cop, John Campbell looking like the most likely Democrat who'll stand up to three-term Republican incumbent Jim Douglas.
John who?
Anway Freyne Land has also learned that Lofy the Writer has another book coming out in March on campaign management. It's called Winning Your Election the Wellstone Way and will be published by the University of Minnesota Press.
Trust me, the U. of Minn Press is a lot better than the Gophers' football team [1-9 this season].
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
St. Patrick of Middlesex was “live” on CNN International Wednesday. Sen. Leahy of Vermont chairs the Appropriations Subcommittee that handles money for our “ally” Pakistan. Ah, yes - Pakistan! That's where President Pervez Musharraf has put the uniform back on and is playing Ol’ Gen. Musharraf, suspended the judiciary and declared a “state of emergency.”
But he's got a little problem named "Patrick J. Leahy."
Leahy: I still think we should move to cut off the aid unless they restore democracy. When you remove the courts - by definition - you do not have a democracy. Unless you have a free judiciary, you don’t have a democracy. I’ve talked to a lot of senators, both Republicans and Democrats who are just outraged with what their seeing on television - lawyers being arrested, members of the judiciary being set aside. The reaction against Ge. Musharraf is very, very strong here.
CNN: What are you going to do about it? Are you going to cut off aid? Can you force anything to happen?
Leahy: I think there’s going to be a very strong effort in Congress to cut off aid unless there are changes and I’ve talked to the State Department and told them that message has to go out, otherwise I will be one to make efforts to cut off that aid.
Baghdad's mayhem and murder is on the airwaves non-stop, but Burlington, Vermont is a very different place, isn't it?
Here in Freyne Land, on the South-side of Big Bad Burlap [that's a shot taken on Maple Street the other day with those Adirondacks in the distance], one is not concerned about driving over an IED and getting blown to kingdom come.
Rather, we have other concerns regarding safety. As veteran baseball umpire, City Councilor and State Rep. Bill Keogh articulates it in the latest online edition of the "Five Sisters Neighborhood Forum":
The perception of some folks is that many cars are speeding in our neighborhoods, thus potentially endangering pedestrians and children using our streets.
If you have a neighborhood area in which you think cars are speeding, work with me to make that determination.
Lt. Scott Davidson of the Burlington Police Dept. has given me an orientation and loaned me a radar speed gun to determine the speed of vehicles. I’d be happy to work with someone who can check the speed of cars in their neighborhood.
For those folks who want to help in this effort, determine a time of day, the day of the week and the location. You and I can sit in the car and clock traffic as it passes. No, we don’t stop cars and we don’t write down license plate numbers. All we do is write down whether this car is above or below the speed limit (usually 30 mph unless posted otherwise).
I’ve done it twice, once on Pine St. the other on Home Ave.
What a guy!
Plus, Ol' Bill often gets taken for me when he's out on his bike.
It's the white hair and the Irish genes, sure it t'is.
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Everything changes.
Sooner or later, eh?
The Gannett chain's top man in Vermont, Burlington Free Press Publisher Jim Carey, a hometown boy and the man in charge on College Street since 1991, is being replaced.
Today's edition breaks the news:
Bradley I. Robertson, formerly vicepresident/advertising at The Des Moines (Iowa) Register, has been namedpresident and publisher of The Burlington Free Press. He replaces JamesCarey, who will become chairman of the Free Press.
Robertsonbegan his Gannett career in 1994 as a circulation analyst for The NewsJournal at Wilmington, Del. He moved to the Fort Collins (Colo.),Coloradoan as a manager of circulation sales, then became manager ofsales and marketing at the Springfield (Mo.) News-Leader.
In 1999, Robertson became director of circulation sales forthe Detroit Newspaper Agency. He was named director of businessdevelopment at Des Moines in 2003 and vice president of businessdevelopment there in 2004. He was named vice president of advertisingfor Des Moines a few months later. Robertson is a graduate of NorthernIllinois University with a bachelor's degree in communication.
"Tough and gruff" would be the way to describe Carey. Hasn't spoken to yours truly since he hung up the car phone on me 10 years ago right after he made the mistake of answering it. [His secretary had "mistakenly" given me the number.]
Carey was an ad sales guy. He also was a social conservative who'd been known to drive a car [his wife's?] that bore a "Jesus" bumper sticker.
But Jim Carey will be remembered most as the publisher who forbade his editorial page from taking a stand or even commenting on the great Vermont battle over same-sex marriage during the 2000 Legislative Session that passed the landmark civil-unions law.
Meanwhile, down Route 7, the editorial page writer at the Rutland Herald, David Moats [caught here on the Church Street Marketplace a few weeks ago], won a Pulitzer Prize for his editorials on the gay marriage debate, an issue Vermont, and the Rutland Herald, led the nation on.
Unfortunately, Burlington's local daily - the state's largest - was silent.
Welcome to Vermont, Brad.
And best wishes, Jimbo!
Really.
None of us are getting any younger, but there's always room for "wiser," eh?
Monday, November 5, 2007
Yes, that is Lake Champlain Chamber Prez "Tommy Guns" Tom Torti on the far left; Ol' Bernardo, a.k.a Bernie Sanders, the only socialist senator America's got; former U.S. Navy submarine captain and Democratic State Rep. Al Perry from Richford; and "Save the Environment" Paul Burns, VPIRG's "Top Gun."
All on the same side on this one!
They want the Bush Administration to force Verizon Wireless to, among other things, provide 100-percent geographic cell phone coverage in Vermont when their purchase of Unicel inevitably goes down. (Most likely next month.)
What have they been smoking?
Hey, if no one could require the Bush Administration to come up with real, actual evidence to justify invading Iraq, to start an endless war, or come up with a nominee for Attorney General who actually opposes torturing prisoners, what makes 'em think they can make the Bush Administration require a corporate giant do something current law does not require them to do?
"What we're asking is kind of unique," acknowledged Sen. Sanders with a twinkle in his eye, "but I think we are right on the issues. We are going to look at all of the opportunities that we have in the Senate to make Verizon an offer they can't refuse."
What does that mean, Don Corleone?
"That means they have got to know that if they don't treat Vermont fairly, we will do everything we can to try to stop this merger.
"That's what it means."
P.S. It's Tom Torti's birthday (53rd).
Happy birthday!
Tags: Senator , Bernie Sanders , Web Only
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Saturday, November 3, 2007
Caught in the act: Burlington Free Press political reporter Sam Hemingway and his, until now, unidentified source.
Captured on film Saturday afternoon in Burlington's Battery Park.
Sam's the one on the left.
More in the Sunday Freeps....